Messages - Nicklab

Nice to see that the red Royal Guard is for real. I figured it would be. I'm just curious why they're putting them out the way they are. It just seems strange.

Got another story of vehicles leaking out. Once again, from Target. My buddy up in Sacto, CA scored me the Tri-Droid fighter, Grievous's Wheelbike & Obi-Wan's fighter. I hope I wind up having enough product left to buy to be eligible for the exclusives on April 2nd.

This is just a general appeal to the board. Some of you might know that I'm an autograph collector. Part of what I do as an auto collector is to get figures signed by the actors.

With that said, there's an autograph appearance being made by Amy Allen and Mary Oyaya. I'd like to get MOMC samples of their ROTS figures if at all possible. The catch? I need them for April 1st. That's the appearance date.

Okay, a couple of questions for the Unleashed collectors out there about some things that I'm confused on right now:

1-What are the differences between the first and current Darth Vader UL and the Removable Helmet version? Is it just the head and the base that has changed, or are there any other differences in the figures?

The current Unleashed Darth Vader that is in stores is a reissue of the first Unleashed Darth Vader, not the removable helmet version. This one just has a redesigned cardback.

2-Has Hasbro said if they will be rereleasing some of the other more difficult to find (and ridiculously priced on Ebay) UL figures in the future? I'd really like to get a Yoda, and I'm sure a lot of other people would love to have a Boba Fett or one of the other more difficult figures, but it would be nice to not have to sell my kidney to get one.

3-Have the rumored UL for this year (Ventress, Palpatine vs. Yoda, Chewbacca, Clone Trooper, Han Stormtrooper) been confirmed or photographed anywhere? I know they were not on display at Toy Fair, but I didn't know if Hasbro had said anything in any of the Q and A's about them.

Still on the lookout for that Stormtrooper...and still feeling like a huge hypocrite for my interest in this line.

No confirmations or photos. Hasbro would not even confirm General Grievous at Toy Fair, despite the fact that images had been leaked and he's currently listed on the Cargo Bay at the official site. The remaining pieces probably won't be confirmed until June or July.

BTW, as we discussed a while back, there were TWO different Bobe Fett Bust-ups shown at Comic Con last year. Anyone have a picture of the one that's apparently not going to be available now, which lost out in favor of this Silver crap? I can't recall now what that one looked like...

From speaking to the Gentle Giant people in Chicago, they said that the Boba Fett that is just a sized down version of the original mini-bust may not be part of the line. It might have only been a display piece, and nothing more.

Talked to Gentle Giant about this again at Toy Fair. Once again, they reconfirmed that it was only a display piece based on the Boba Fett mini-bust, not part of the line.

I think the situation is kind of ridiculous. Why the hell are they offering to buy product from people who find it early? I can understand wanting to get things early in order to offer the images to their readers. Perhaps they're trying to make up for their half-assed Q&A efforts at Toy Fair?

Fact is that GH has pretty well scooped every other collecting site when it comes to new figure images. I can say this with some degree of objectivity AND perspective since I've worked as a Star Wars collecting site reporter for the past 4 years or so. This just looks like RS is trying to play catchup now.

I used to make beer runs into Quebec when I went to school in northern NY. We would literally cross the border, make a U-turn to go to the Canadian Duty Free store, buy a case of Molson Brador, and go back to campus. It took all of half an hour. A thing of beauty!

Tonight, I'm indulging in Starbucks, and a little later on it'll be a can of Full Throttle. #*$&ing overnights suck!